The White House says in a blog post Saturday that while online piracy by foreign websites presents a "serious problem," it is concerned with legislation that "reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk" or acts to undermine the global Internet.

The administration is responding to measures under consideration in Congress that would allow the Justice Department to seek a court order targeting rogue offshore websites.

The White House says efforts to combat online piracy needs to guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity. It says the openness of the Internet is critical to innovation and must be protected.